


Blood-Soaked Petals

by OctolingO



Category: Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Hanahaki Disease, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24478723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OctolingO/pseuds/OctolingO
Summary: So I just figured out what hanahaki was and this fic kinda forced itself from me
Relationships: Kaladin/Renarin Kholin
Comments: 9
Kudos: 16





	Blood-Soaked Petals

Renarin awoke with a throbbing stomach cramp. He rushed from his room, moving to the sink and coughing. 

A single, golden flower petal drifted into the sink. 

Hands trembling, Renarin touched his mouth. His fingers came away slick with blood, and what looked like pollen. He coughed again, this time causing an entire flower to fall into the sink.  _ What is happening to me?  _ He thought, panicked. 

Renarin frantically pressed his sleeve to his mouth as he felt more stupid flowers threatening to fall out. He had been dragged into a strategy meeting with Adolin and his father: an experience he usually would’ve found exciting, that someone would think to include him, but his mind was more focused on his floral problem. He stood abruptly. 

“Excuse me for a moment.” He said, voice muffled against his blue Bridge Four uniform. He quickly strode from the room, not waiting for permission to leave.  _ I gotta hide these stupid things… _ He thought. 

A jar sitting innocently on a stool in a corner of the room caught his attention. Renarin almost ran to the ceramic, gagging and emptying a cluster of small blue flowers into the jar. He groaned, wiping the blood away from his mouth with the inside of his sleeve—so Adolin or father or Kaladin wouldn’t notice. 

Kaladin. Renarin’s thoughts had been drifting to his Bridge Leader more than they usually did lately, which made absolutely no sense. Kaladin only saw Renarin as a colleague, maybe a friend at best. And it wasn’t like Renarin saw Kaladin as anything more than a friend.

Right? 

Kaladin knew there was something wrong with Renarin. Though the boy had always been quiet, he talked with Bridge Four a lot around dinner, when Rock would make soup. 

But Renarin was barely talking at  _ all _ . He kept glancing at Kaladin when he thought the Bridge Leader wouldn’t notice, and he’d even turned down Rock’s soup. Lopen had offered chouta as well, which Renarin had also said he didn’t want. The boy had then proceeded to cough violently into his elbow for a good minute or so. 

It could’ve just been Kaladin’s imagination, but he was pretty sure he’d seen red on the side of Renarin’s mouth before the princeling had wiped it away.

Sparring the next day had also been odd. Renarin, who was given Lopen or Hobber to spar against (most of the time, though he’d attempted to spar with Teft one time, which had yielded poor results). Renarin kept holding his hand to his mouth and using his spear one-handed, which Lopen found amusing, but Kaladin only found it worrying. The Kholin prince was also running out of breath alarmingly fast. Renarin had never been particularly athletic, but he had always been able to do a sparring match or two before needing to take a break. This time around, Renarin had to sit down about halfway through his first match and take a few gasping breaths that hurt Kaladin to listen to before he was able to keep fighting, and even then he could just barely finish the match before running from the training grounds. 

“Do you think he is alright?” Rlain asked softly. 

“He’s always been the weird one.” Hobber reasoned. “I’m sure everything is fine.” 

Kaladin wasn’t so sure. 

Renarin laid awake, starting at the ceiling, stomach throbbing. He’d been standing beside the sink, throwing up flowers for almost 2 and a half hours before they’d finally stopped and he’d been able to lay in bed. 

The only problem was he couldn’t fall asleep.  _ I need to tell someone about this. _ He thought.  _ Although anyone I told would probably think I’m crazy.  _

_ Except… _ Renarin, despite the pain he was in, smiled slightly as he developed a plan.

Waking up was a mistake. 

This was the first thing Renarin realized as he opened his eyes. While his stomach ache was gone, he felt like he could barely breathe. His throat was clogged with something. He stood, moving to look in the mirror fabrial Aunt Navani had put on his wall. He opened his mouth, hoping to see what was stuck in it. 

He jerked back with a startled cry—that devolved into coughing and the producing of a few small red flowers falling to the ground—as he saw that his mouth was full of flowers. At the back of his mouth, there was a large, multicolored blossom. He could only assume that the rest of his esophagus was full of the flowers too.  _ Alright, I  _ have  _ to tell Kaladin _ . He walked from the room, pausing a few times on his way to Bridge Four’s barracks to cough flowers and thorns into various jars, and wipe the blood away from his lip. 

Thankfully, Captain Kaladin and his men were already awake and chatting, even at an early hour. 

“Renarin. Is something wrong?” Kaladin asked as Renarin approached, standing up. 

“Can I… talk to you in private?” Renarin said (almost begged), trying not to look Kaladin in the eyes. 

“Sure?” Kaladin said, confused. 

“Thank you—” Renarin doubled over, attacked by a fit of hacking coughs. His eyesight blurred with tears, and he vaguely saw some colorful blobs and splatters of red falling onto the dirt.  _ Flower petals. And… blood. _ He thought, mind fuzzy. 

“Storms—” Kaladin said. He kept talking, but Renarin did not hear. The princeling toppled forwards, unconscious. 

“Storms, what—” Kaladin cut himself off with another string of cursing as Renarin passed out and fell towards the ground. Rock lunged forward, catching the Kholin and cradling him, much like one would a small child (which, if you think about it, Renarin was essentially a child in Rock’s eyes). 

“We need to get him to medic.” Rock said gruffly. Kaladin nodded, unable to tear his eyes away from the blood and flower petals  _ why in Damnation’s name is he coughing up flower petals _ on the ground. 

“Kal.” Teft said, shaking his Captain’s shoulder. “Come on.” The older man raised his voice to address the rest of Bridge Four, all of whom looked shaken. “Lopen, Hobber, Drehy, and Skar! You guys find highprince Dalinar, Queen Navani, Prince Adolin, Shallan Kholin and Queen Jasnah! Quickly, please. Everyone else, I want you to make sure no one finds out about this. We don’t need more suspicious rumors surrounding us.” The various members of Bridge Four nodded, with the aforementioned four bridgemen running off to do their jobs. Rock, Kaladin, and Teft went to the infirmary near the soldiers’ barracks. 

The poor surgeon who looked up to see a very tall Horneater glowering at him went paper-white.

“Private room.” Rock said. “Now.” The surgeon nodded, nervously grabbing at his small gray beard. He showed them to a room near the back of the infirmary that was hidden behind a stained curtain. Rock laid Renarin on the bed with shocking gentleness, and the boy shifted around on the sheets. He drew in a breath, one that sounded alarmingly rattling and shallow. The surgeon shuffled from the room, and Kaladin glared at his back.

Shallan Davar burst into the room, red hair disheveled.

“I came as soon as I heard.” She said breathlessly. “What’s wrong with Ren—” She cut herself off as she looked at the prone form of Renarin. “What are the symptoms?” She asked, voice hardening and sounding a lot like Jasnah did. 

“He coughed up flowers. And blood.” Teft explained. Shallan thought for a moment before speaking again. 

“Hanahaki Disease.” She said. “It’s extremely rare, but essentially, the victim is someone who falls in love with another person who doesn’t love them back. The victim then coughs up or vomits flowers for anywhere from a few days to almost a year, before dying. The only way to save the victim is if the object of their affection returns the affection, or if the flowers are surgically removed from the windpipe. However, surgical removal takes away the victim’s capacity for romantic love.”

“Who… Who’s he fallen in love with?” Kaladin said, struggling for words.

“There’s no real way to tell. Once he wakes up, we’ll ask him.” Shallan said. 

“What happened?” Adolin exclaimed, skidding into the room. Dalinar, Navani, and Jasnah stood behind him, eyes shadowed. The three royals were tense, and Navani had tears shining in her eyes. 

“He has hanahaki disease.” Shallan said. She proceeded to explain the symptoms once again, and by the end of it Navani’s tears were running down her face. 

Adolin knelt beside his brother’s bed, reaching a hand out and clutching Renarin’s.

“Ren, you’re going to be just fine. I promise, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” 

“I know you won’t.” A hoarse voice said. Renarin, who had woken up (mostly). He coughed, staining his mouth red. He spit a flower petal. Adolin hugged his younger brother with a grin.

“Son.” Dalinar said, voice choked. “Why didn’t you tell me this was happening?”

“I worried—” Renarin held a hand to his mouth, “I worried that you would think I was crazy.” Jasnah flinched, almost imperceptibly.

“Renarin, who are you in love with?” Shallan asked, gently but firmly. 

“W-what?”

“Your sickness.” Shallan prompted. “It means you're in love with someone. Who is it?”   
“I…” Renarin sighed, which turned into a heartbreakingly weak cough (which resulted in him pulling an  _ entire _ yellow flower from his mouth). “They’re in this room.”

“Well, it can’t be me, Dalinar, mother, or Adolin.” Jasnah said. “So it’s either Shallan or one of the Bridge Four members.”

“It’s not Shallan.” Renarin said. 

“Kaladin.” Teft realized. “He’s in love with Kaladin.”

“Wh—Me?” Kaladin sputtered. 

“Think about it.” Teft continued. “You let him into Bridge Four. You guard him on a weekly basis. And don’t tell me, oh glorious captain, that you haven’t seen the way young Kholin blushes every time you take your shirt off to spar. Or how he’s always happy to do the dishes if you tell him to, but not if anyone else does.”

“This is true.” Rock said, a hint of amusement on his face. 

“Are they right?” Kaladin asked Renarin. “Are you… in love with me?” Renarin swallowed and winced. 

“Yes.” He said. Dalinar and Navani sucked in short breaths. Kaladin drew back, blinking his blue eyes. It took him a moment to decipher his flurry of feelings. 

“I think…” Kaladin said, “I think I might be in love with you.” Kaladin remembers the first time he saw Renarin, and that his first thought beyond  _ it’s the Kholin prince _ was how much the unusual black-and-yellow hair color paired with the blue uniform brought out the prince’s eyes. When Renarin had asked to join Bridge Four, Kaladin had felt a rush of excitement before accepting the offer. Renarin only had taken off his shirt one time to spar, but Kaladin had been unable to keep his eyes off the prince the whole time. 

Renarin’s face broke into a smile. Kaladin leaned down, pressing his lips to the prince’s. Shallan grinned, clapping her hands. Kaladin pulled away from Renarin and blushed. 


End file.
